Thread the Needle (Part 2 of 7)

Posted on 25 Mar 2017 @ 6:55pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Aren Ban & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant JG Stephanie Fraiser (KIA) & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Ambassador Soral Varro & Sub-commander S'anara Valdran & Petty Officer 1st Class Eviess & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin
Edited on on 25 Mar 2017 @ 6:59pm

2,919 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 14 - Statecraft
Location: IKS DuJa'Q, Sector 040 Grid 3801
Timeline: MD 06 - 0502 hrs

Previously, on Thread the Needle (Part 1)...

T'Lin was already at the science station. She refused to be in close proximity to Klingons. It was decidedly the smell and thus had taken to just doing mental exercises to relax when there was time.

=^=Science is ready=^= she remarked.

Steph was already wide awake and had been checking out sciences ... back passages so to speak she liked to know what she might have on hand in an emergency. Coming out of a cupboard she nodded to T'Lin.

=^=Research is ready=^=

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 3, Command Hull - Bridge

"Report," called out Lirha who was now situated in the forward command chair with the main viewscreen mere feet from her eyes. She tapped several commands into her chair's armrest console which shifted the viewer's display from that of the warping stars to a tactical overlay of the surrounding sectors. A large grid composed of red triangles was overlaid on the display then was accompanied by information streams along the top and bottom of the screen in Klingon text. At the center of the grid map was the DuJa'Q accompanied by several unknown contacts in the nearby vicinity.

"We're doing warp 8," that much was easy, she could tell that by the way the ship felt, but she had to think about the the heading, translating the Klingon alphanumerics, "Course heading from our exit of the nebula, one forty, mark three forty-eight." her internal map of the galaxy nudged her. "We'll be in Starbase 234's space in 8 minutes if we maintain it."

When the general called out for a report, Amaranai looked to her scans to see what was out there. Even without knowing Klingon to describe the vessels, she had a strong knowledge of just what vessels looked like on sensors and could figure out an approximate category or more depending on what she saw. It only took her a moment to identify the two contacts.

"General," she said. "One merchant vessel heading away from our current location." She paused a moment. "But there is a Starfleet contact in a direct intercept course with us."

The report of the Starfleet vessel was most concerning. Lirha sat in silence for several long seconds while she stared at its symbology on the viewscreen's tactical display. It was indeed postured to intersect DuJa'Q's course which greatly worried her.

"Commander Ban," she called out, "Can you identify the Starfleet vessel?"

Aren moved to Lt. Franklin's secondary station, knowing that he would need to look at the raw data himself. He looked at it for a moment before responding. "It's an Akira class..." He said as he manipulated the data for a moment. "It's signature matches the Sentinel." He called to the general, with confidence in his analysis.

Sentinel, Lirha thought to herself. She was not familiar with its crew but knew the captain -- a Greek Earth commander who she'd attended the Academy with by the name of Kristos Matis. Her experience with him had been limited in the past to casual classroom acquaintances, and she knew even less about his operational mechanics since Sentinel had never been assigned to 9th Fleet during her command tenure. "What is Sentinel's current speed?"

S'anara's fingers danced across the console pulling up the information. "The Sentinel is currently at Warp 8.5." She replied.

At that speed, Lirha knew it wouldn't be long before the two vessels closed to a short distance of each other. That was a scenario she wanted to avoid, for despite her battlecruiser's formidable firepower, it was no match for the larger Akira-class in an evenly-matched one-versus-one engagement.

"If we remain on our current course...how long until they enter weapons range?" the general asked.

Amaranai listened as Commander Ban mentioned the Sentinel. She knew of the ship but did not know any of its crew. She also knew the weapons compliment of an Akira class ship and knew that the Sentinelhad not had any modifications done, so it could definitely put up a good fight. She was going to have to be ready. Amaranai heard the general and she took a moment to double check her readings.

"The Sentinel would be in range in about ten minutes, general," she said.

As she said, that, she prepared herself to begin charging the disruptors and the torpedoes, in case they were called for. She wouldn't do it until ordered, but she wanted to be ready. This was going to be a fight that they hoped to avoid, but if things came down to it, Amaranai wanted to be as quick as possible.

"...Perhaps if we perform a course and speed change, we can alter our vector to force an overshoot..." the Orion pondered to herself out loud. She turned her attention toward the conn and the pink-haired officer who occupied the station. "Miss Derani, can you plot a new course and reconfigure our vector for Warp 7? A course that would allow Sentinel to pass by us if they maintain their current course and speed, but also keep us on a parallel heading toward the Neutral Zone?"

Miraj was already thinking about it, running numbers through her head. The problem with everyone was they forget space was...well, space. Three dimensional. And big. Avoiding something was easy. "Without even slowing down. We can go over them, under them, shadow them for a bit. I could loop the loop here, stutter our forward motion long enough for them to overshoot. We could accelerate. Maximum warp, over shoot the intercept and never twitch off course. Barrel roll around the intercept point. Do it fast enough and sheer momentum should keep us out of serious sensor range." She gave Lirha a look of sheer impishness. "I like that one best. Klingon ships have really good inertial dampers."

"Discretion, ensign," Lirha quickly replied. "That is a Starfleet heavy cruiser out there rapidly approaching and armed with over two-hundred quantum torpedoes. We cannot afford lucrative maneuvers and risk a chance of detection." She rubbed her chin and ran through several scenarios in her head before eventually deciding on a course of action. She hadn't exactly gotten the answer she was expecting since the young officer's suggestion was to increase speed instead of reducing it.

"Come about to heading one-three-one mark zero. Drop down to warp 7," she instructed. The new course would ideally put their vector perpendicular to that of the incoming vessel and open more space.

It made no sense to Miraj to go slower. If the ship was trying to intercept, they could just wait for them and adjust course. But she also knew she had the tactical knowledge of a teaspoon, so she laid in the course as requested, taking it slowly with the unfamiliar Klingon numbers to be sure she got it right. "Course laid, reducing to warp seven."

Currently running at high warp, IKS DuJa'Q began to slow and adjusted course. Its warp vector slowly swung off its original heading and within twenty seconds, was now moving to evade the incoming Starfleet vessel.

From the tactical display on the main viewscreen, Lirha watched with attentiveness while the course plots of both vessels were updated. Her starship's new course was projected to clear the Sentinel's estimated sensor range within a matter of moments if there were no further corrections.

Thirty seconds passed then Lirha finally began to let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding in her chest. Suddenly, the viewscreen's display flashed an icon around the Starfleet vessel.

"General," Amaranai said at the same time the viewscreen changed. "The Sentinel has changed course to compensate for our change. They have also increased speed to warp 9.4 as part of their intercept."

"What?!" Lirha rose from her chair with a sense of urgency and spun on her heels to look at the rest of the bridge crew behind her. "How is that possible?" she half-asked, half-demanded. "We are under cloak and outside of their short-range sensors...how can they detect us?" Her first thought was that there was perhaps a malfunction in the cloaking device. "Confirm that we are cloaked?"

"The computer says the cloak is working normally." Mimi replied. She'd never worked first hand with a cloak before but she had read about them and was already thinking what could be wrong with it.

"Run a diagnostic on the system and double-check!" Lirha ordered. "Check for any increase in residual anti-proton emissions and tachyon particles." They would soon find themselves in a face-to-face encounter with the Akira-class if something was amiss.

Mimi's hands darted over the controls, the translation matrix Aren had made was earning it's keep as she checked the systems connected to the cloak. Eventually she got to the main deflector. "That is it." she called out "The main deflector is releasing higher levels of Anti-protons then it should be."

Anti-protons? Why? Lirha narrowed her eyes while trying to run tough any possible scenarios for the emissions in her head. There was little she could think of off the top of her head, but her lack of familiarity with Klingon ship systems wasn't lending her any helping hand. "Contact main engineering and inform them of the problem. See if they can diagnose the problem and give a solution."

"Bridge to engineering." Mimi said after tapping the control on her console. "The main deflector is leaking Anti-protons, it is making us easier to locate under the cloak." She explained.


Deck 9, Command Hull - Sickbay

Allyndra put on a disruptor and wondered a moment. They were supposed to be trying to be sneaky not confrontational. Arming for battle made no sense and they were cloaked. Something clicked in her mind and she called the bridge. Lirha would be busy but Ban might be more open to odd ramblings.

=^=Commander Ban, this is Allyndra=^=

=^=This Commander Ban, what can I do for you?=^= His tone was curious, with a touch of urgency.

=^=Yes commander, I have an idea. I do know that there has been work on trying to detect cloaked ships and I would imagine that the Federation has been hard at work especially along the borders. While the cloak can hide the visual signatures, and even the thermal and other properties it cannot hide the ship's mass. A mass moving though space-time creates gravitational waves. It takes a bit of detection but all you have to do is look and then track the movement of the waves and there is your target.=^=

Aren wanted to nod. That wasn't any new information, but it was a useful reminder. =^=I think I know what you are a getting at. But what do you have in mind?=^=

=^= Come to a complete dead stop and be quiet =^=

"Shut down the engines," Marisa added. "Because they can track the tachyon and tetryon particles. Well, if they're paying attention."


Deck 6, Engineering Hull - Engineering

Varro sighed and used his sleeve to wipe sweat from his face. "Acknowledged Bridge. We are having a problem with the emitter cartridges. We have three fused chips and we are working on it. There is however another problem."

"Another problem?" replied Lirha. Fused relay chips were bad enough, and part of her immediately wondered why such a thing had happened in the first place. Perhaps poor maintenance? But then again, of all the critical starship systems to run a diagnostic on before deploying on an operation, the main deflector and cloaking device would have been priorities.

"Well madam, I have three people ill here and I'm guessing it's from a secondary leak. The generator that's meant to produce the cloak screen is feeding back something that I cannot identify and that feedback is causing problems. I need more hands here. Preferably someone with a scientific expertise and perhaps a medic." He thought for a moment. "Hang on...I might be able to restore the cloak but you'll get a perfect cloak for only three point seven minutes. Not sure if that will help." He knew it wouldn't. They would need someone with more experience them Varro had. He could patch but not fully fix. He wished Braxton was here. He hoped they could get a science office soon.

Lirha shifted uncomfortably in her hard chair. "Very well, contact sickbay and tend to those affected. Contact Lieutenant Fraiser in the science lab and have her report to main engineering at once," Saalm ordered.

Varro managed to dislodge the three fused chips but at a cost. "Bugger." He cursed as he shook his hand. That burn would need treating. He tried to focus on the chips rather then the burn lest his stomach decide to bring up lunch. He carefully added the three new chips, waiting until each emitted a chirp signaling that it had been placed properly. It would have to be a Klingon ship. The only thing he was glad for was that he spent all that time with the Klingons and negotiating. He could at least read the God awful excuse for writing they used.

As Varro worked he called medical. He wondered if Eviess would show. "Varro to sickbay. I need some help down here." He filled them in on the loop and the symptoms.

Allyndra responded, =^=I will be there shortly=^=. She headed off. Her mind reviewed the treatment. It should be like a soft gamma exposure do nothing real nasty. Anti-protons would interact with the tissue almost like proton therapy but with the destructive cause and consequent slowing would be a sort of bremsstraghlung radiation.

He then called science. "Varro to Science I need some help down here."

"On my way Varro." Stephanie grabbed her tools.

=^=I will be there=^= T'Lin responded and headed toward engineering as well.

Tossing the fuse chips out he carefully inserted their spares. Each chirp and click a relief. Just as the last chirp emitted he heard someone moving behind him. He didn't need to look. The scent of summer cherry blossoms told him Eviess was here. He heard the whirl of the tricorder.

"Varro..."

"Tend to the wounded I am well. I have to fix the generator leak." He hurried without another word and scooted up the ladder towards the little alcove that held the generator. His hand burned with pain but he ignored it. He had to at least stop the leak so that more people would not get sick. Where was the science department?

T'Lin arrived and as soon as she saw Varro moving she said, "Stop, we need to set a shield up first. Approaching is only going to make more injury." She turned her attention to the materials at hand. "Come sir, give me a hand with this plastic panel. Anti-protons without acceleration have little energy on their own. That will give us some shielding."

Varro gave a nod glad a scientist was here finally. "I gladly defer to you madam." He approached the panel and helped her set it aside. "Just let me know what I can do."

"First get treated," T'Lin iterated. "Then we can shield enough to fix the problem."

Allyndra had arrived and started to treat the patients. The burns were mostly superficial but she would have to monitor for longer term damage which might force some reverse isolation.

"You know maybe we could use the anti-proton leak to our advantage and get rid of them at the same time," Allyndra commented while the other two worked.

T'Lin listened. "Concentrate the leak and use it as a minor anti-proton weapon. About enough to blind their tracking systems."

Varro listened while keeping his hands behind his back. He knew the doctor would stop to heal the burn. "Doctor how do we blind their tracking system? I must admit that is a fascinating idea."

"We get past the shields with varying the beam with a Kolmogrovian probability function."

"Which would allow higher tunneling of the anti-protons." T'Lin nodded. "It might be possible."

"Ladies, my hands your will. Tell me what to do."

Eviess stepped in. "First we treat those hands. Let's see them."

Varro sighed and held out his hands. Eviess began to treat them. The burns were not bad so she was able to just run the dermal regenerator on them while T'Lin and Allyndra explained the process.

Allyndra continued with the hurt Klingons leaving the rest in Varro's and T'Lin's hands at this point.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

GEN Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

SCPO Martin Caine
Chief of the Boat (CoB)
IKS DuJa'Q

Ambassador Soral Varro
Chief Diplomatic Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security/Tactical Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Petty Officer Eviess
Medical Officer
IKS DuJa'Q
[PNPC Varro]

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
IKS Duja'Q

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval
Counselor
IKS Duja'Q

Petra Varelli
Forensic Anthropologist
IKS Duja'Q
[PNPC Sandoval]

Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
IKS Duja'Q

Commander Aren Ban
Executive Officer
IKS Duja'Q

ENS Mimi
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

LT Min Zhao
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

LTJG Stephanie Fraiser
Chief Research Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

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